Sounds drop second straight walk-off, Kuehner posts first Triple-A quality start

Two straight walk-off defeats in the same series turned Nashville’s trip to Gwinnett into a sharp test of late-inning reliability. The Sounds lost 4-3 in 10 innings at Gwinnett Field on Saturday night, with Jose Azocar’s one-out RBI single in the bottom of the 10th sending Brewer Hicklen home and giving the Stripers their second straight walk-off win over Nashville.

The loss cut Nashville to 6-7 and pushed Gwinnett to 9-5, with the Stripers claiming the series at 4-1 and improving to 3-1 in games decided in the last at-bat. It also followed Friday night’s 6-5 finish, when Gwinnett scored the winning run on a walk-off play after a Nashville error. Add the series opener, a 4-1 Gwinnett victory, and the Stripers controlled the closing moments of the matchup from start to finish.

Amid the frustration, Tate Kuehner delivered the strongest pitching line of his Triple-A season. The 25-year-old left-hander, a 2023 seventh-round pick by the Brewers out of Louisville, worked 6.0 innings for his first career Triple-A quality start of the year. He entered with a 2026 line of 1-0 and a 5.59 ERA across his first two appearances, covering 9.2 innings, and Saturday’s outing marked a step forward in both efficiency and poise as he worked through traffic and stranded runners in key spots.

Nashville also got needed production from its lineup. Luis Lara went 3-for-5 with an RBI and three stolen bases, continuing a strong series that included his second three-hit night against Gwinnett. He singled in Jett Williams in the first inning, then singled again in the third after Luke Adams doubled, keeping the Sounds in position to pressure the Stripers throughout the night. Ramon Rodriguez also turned in a three-hit game, giving Nashville multiple table-setters at the top and middle of the order.

Brock Wilken added the other key run-scoring swings. He lifted a sacrifice fly to put Nashville back in front in the third inning, then later doubled in another run after Lara stole second in the seventh. But Gwinnett answered in the eighth to erase a 3-2 Nashville lead, and the Sounds never recovered in extra innings. Nashville went down in order in the 10th, leaving the tiebreaker chance untouched before Azocar finished the job in the home half.

For Nashville, the result was one more reminder that close games are being decided against it too often. For Kuehner, Lara and Rodriguez, the individual performances offered real signs of progress, but the series ended with Gwinnett showing the sharper finish and the cleaner late-inning edge.